Fate's Ways
by Jann
Summary: Forensic pathologist, Dr. Kagome Higurashi is paired with Special Agents Inu-Yasha Oniiyoukai and Miroku Ash in the case that began with Kohaku Zackow, but extended far beyond. Rated PG-13 for strong language and inuendos. ::Ch. 5 is up::
1. Bodies

::Author's Note::  
  
First of all, I don't own Inu-Yasha or any of it's characters, my heroine Rumiko Takahashi has that honor. I am making zero profit from this work other than my own amusement and perhaps the amusement of others. ::Bows:: Just thought I'd get all this legal crap out of my way -- the last thing I need is a lawsuit.  
  
This is an Inu-Yasha/Kagome and probably Miroku/Sango alternate universe (ooh, that sounds spooky ^_^) fic set in America, mostly because I know little to nothing (edging closer to nothing) about Japan's legal system. Also, I know Hojou's surname's not Miller . . . if anyone does know the real name, I'd be happy to change it . . . Sorry to inconvenience y'all. ::Bows several more times::  
  
Kagome Higurashi works as a forensic pathologist in a morgue in downtown Olympia, Washington. Her life was quite normal until the day the cadaver of a boy named Kohaku arrived and strange things began to happen. Who's this "Naraku" character demanding rights over the body and what is meant of the "enchantments" Kohaku's sister Sango insists he uses, but refuse to explain? And who the hell do the field agents Inu-Yasha Oniiyoukai and Miroku Ash think they are, moving in on her morgue; and furthermore, can Kagome stop herself from falling head-over-heels for Oniiyoukai before she gets too involved to continue with her job?  
  
Enjoy.  
  
Feh . . . I have to save this as a "text" file and it won't let me use italics, underlining, bold print, etc. . . . sorry about the lack of emotion. ^_^  
  
  
Fate's Ways  
Chapter One  
"Bodies"  
By Jann  
  
  
"Well of course there was trauma to the head. What do you take me for, Higuarshi?" Dr. Hojou Miller demanded.  
  
"Good, Hojou, very good," Kagome said. "You want your Beggin' Strips now or later?"  
  
Hojou only sneered at his partner. "I can diognose a cause of death."  
  
" 'I dunno what killed him; I'll look into it when I get back from lunch,' " Kagome mimicked with a roll of her eyes.  
  
"Well . . ." Hojou didn't finish.  
  
"You just take your job way too seriously," Kagome remarked dryly.  
  
"What can I say? When you got it, you got it." Hojou flashed her a grin and put down his scalpel.  
  
"So what'd you think, Hojou?" Kagome asked, becoming more serious. She pulled a cap over her thick, black hair and pushed a few loose strands under in the back. She set her magnifying goggles on her nose and finally, snapped a pair of rubber gloves into place.  
  
Kagome Higuarshi was one of the forensic pathologists at the Fairveiw Morgue in Olympia, Washington, where she'd worked for almost five years. Things had been somewhat slow the past few days and she and her partner, Hojou Miller, had been helping out with the routines. Not that she minded having a few days away from major homicides; not at all. But as much as she loved and admired her partner Hojou, the combination of him and a lack of work were starting to get on her nerves.  
  
"There's not much to think," Hojou admitted. "This is a typical gang case. Someone got hit over the head with something. Further investigation seems to point to something heavy and blunt. It looks like this guy was hit with a lot of force too, Kag. Look at the crack in the skull."  
  
"Yeah, I saw that," Kagome agreed, leaning in closer. "Open and shut?"   
"Like a Dr. Suess murder novel," Hojou said.  
  
"Gotcha," Kagome said, lifting her goggles. "And there goes another pair of unused gloves to latex-Heaven," she noted, throwing away her fresh gloves.  
  
"I'm felling the loss already," Hojou murmured. following the suite. "You wanna write it up?"  
  
"Not if you want to," Kagome teased. "Because I know how much you love taking care of paperwork after the episode with Ms. Yura."  
  
The person in charge of the paperwork coming from homicide department in Fairveiw was a woman named Stella Yura. She was an odd young woman who hated when things didn't go her way; needless to say, things didn't go her way when Hojou handled the paperwork. This was due mostly to the fact that his organizational systems weren't what you would call "top-notch."  
  
"Please, Miss Higurashi, let me clean up," Hojou said, bowing deeply.  
  
"Ja ne," she called, tossing her smock into the laundry bin as she opened a door and went through the storage room that led to their office. She sat down at her desk and touched the mouse to turn off the screen saver.  
  
Kagome was barely thirty years old and had worked at the Fairveiw morgue since she was twenty-six, fresh out of college. She was a tall woman with thick, black hair and dark brown eyes. Her mother, her step-father, her grandfather and her younger brother, Sota, still lived in Twinkle Town, USA, also known as Greenville, just outside of Olympia, where Kagome had grown up. Sota was twenty-four and married with a young son that loved Kagome to death. There were days when Kagome envied her brother's happy marriage; but there were more when she was just glad at least where she was in her life, no one would pick up and leave her, like her father had done her mother.  
  
Kagome brought up the death certificate for the man on the table to e-mail to Ms. Yura. "Another John Doe," she murmured, annoyed. That meant she would have to look up his number.  
  
The phone rang, stopping her search before it began, though and Kagome immediately picked it up.  
  
"Fairveiw Morgue, Homicide Department, this is Dr. Kagome Higurashi," she said, riffling aimlessly through a few papers. The file she was looking for wasn't on her desk; she already knew that.  
  
"Ooh, nice etiquette," Hojou teased.  
  
Kagome rolled her eyes. "Hojou, why are you calling me from the next room?"   
"We have a body in, Kag, you better get in here. It looks like things are picking up!"  
  
  
+++  
  
  
Miroku Ash leaned back in his seat and picked at his fingernails. "You know, Inu-Yasha, if you were to just relax, the flight would probably go a lot more quickly. Here, I'll even let you have the window seat!"  
  
"Nice try," Inu-Yasha growled. "I didn't put you there 'cuz it makes you look pretty. The last thing we need is a sexual harassment charge by a flight attendant. Again."  
  
After a second or two of sulking, Miroku perked up again. "I have to go to the bathroom."  
  
"Hold it."  
  
"Damnit."  
  
Miroku looked at Inu-Yasha thoughtfully for a moment before returning to his fingernails. The in-flight movie was almost over and he figured the plane would land soon. As amusing as he found the sight of his partner clutching the armrests and looking straight ahead, practically burning holes in the seat in from of him, Miroku was getting sick of traveling himself. The day had grown increasingly boring after Inu-Yasha had torn him from the outer-seat, insisting that his antics were "less than honorable." Pfft.  
  
"Who put you in charge, anyway?" Miroku mumbled.  
  
"Me," Inu-Yasha grumbled.  
  
"You, you, you," Miroku muttered.  
  
"Miroku, you're starting to bug me," Inu-Yasha informed his partner, his gold eyes never faltering from the seat in front of his. He had a strong build, long dark hair, a temper and a gun, the latter two being qualities that it seemed shouldn't be mixed. But Agent Oniiyoukai had never failed to complete a case and though he refused to admit it, he and Agent Ash worked well together, despite the fact that Ash was a the biggest pervert in America.  
  
And somewhere in that profile fit a terror of flying.  
  
"Attention passengers; please fasten all seatbelts and prepare to land. Thank you for flying Northern Cross!" came a voice over the intercom.  
  
"There is a god," Inu-Yasha mumbled, putting on his seatbelt. He looked up to see a flight attendant at his side. "Is there a problem with your seatbelt, sir?" she asked over Inu-Yasha's head.  
  
Inu-Yasha turned to see Miroku, his face straight as you please, pressing the call button. "Why yes, ma'am. I can't see to get mine to buckle. Could you help me?"  
  
"Miroku, give it up!" he commanded. "Sorry. He's fine," he told the woman.  
  
"Are you sure?"   
"No, he's not sure."  
  
"Yes, I am."   
The tall blonde looked rather perplexed. Inu-Yasha reached over and buckled Miroku's belt for him.  
  
"Miraculous! He fixed it!" Miroku cried.  
  
"I hope you had a nice flight!" the stewardess chirped with a grin, turning away from them. Miroku leaned over Inu-Yasha to watch as she walked away.  
  
"Oh, I have now," Miroku said gleefully.  
  
Inu-Yasha whacked his partner upside the head. "Can you stop that for even a second?!"  
  
His cell phone rang, not allowing Miroku to answer the question. "Oniiyoukai. I'm kinda in the middle of . . . Myoga, we're landing right now. Can't you call back later? Right. Sure. Okay -- Miroku; write this down -- Fairveiw Morgue, Fairveiw Boulevard. Southern side of town. Yeah, okay, okay. We have to get a hotel first and . . . Don't give me the details now, call back later . . . Yeah, right." He hung up the phone.  
  
"Fairveiw Morgue?" Miroku asked.  
  
"That's where the body of this kid is, I guess," Inu-Yasha shrugged. The plane was finally landing and they would once again have contact with the ground. Inu-Yasha had never been afraid of heights; in fact, as a small child, he was almost always to be found in the treehouse his dad had built for him and his half-brother before he had died. It was having no connection to the ground that he was tensed by.  
  
"Murdered at twelve," Miroku murmured. "His sister was a witness, right?"  
  
"Evidently, they were playing some game in an arcade and he was shot in back several times with arrows," Inu-Yasha said. "No one knows where they came from and no one saw them shot."  
  
Miroku began to hum the theme from "The X Files." "So how do you figure they did it?"  
  
"I really don't know on this one. We'll have to see what kind of arrows they are. If the arrows are original or really old, they can probably be traced. Cuz really, how many people have arrows from the eighteen-hundreds or whatever? " Inu-Yasha asked.  
  
"Please gather your carry-ons and prepare to disembark. Thank you for flying Northern Cross!"  
  
Inu-Yasha got up and stretched. He reached over Miroku's head to take his briefcase out of the overhead compartment. "Doesn't matter right this second, anyway. Before we do anything, we have to get a hotel and check in again with Myoga. The idiot claimed he was getting ready for a board meeting or something."   
  
"Damn director," Miroku mumbled. "He's the only one who can make a date for the middle of the day and keep it without questions."  
  
"Like that old bag could get a date," Inu-Yasha said as they made their way down the aisle.  
  
"Certainly been a while since you've had one," Miroku pointed out.  
  
"I got my reasons."  
  
"Thank you for flying Northern Cross," the flight attendant said as they were leaving. "Thank you for flying Northern Cross, sir."  
  
"No, ma'am, thank you for gracing Northern Cross with such beauty. I'm in town for a while, if you like, maybe we could --"  
  
Inu-Yasha grabbed Miroku's shirt collar and proceeded to drag him the rest of the way out of the plane.  
  
  
::Author's note::  
  
Well, there you go. I realize that I cheated a bit; Sango will be about Kagome, Inu-Yasha and Miroku's age, but Kohaku is around twelve. Reviews are appreciated. ^_^ 


	2. Traditional First Insults and Ego Wounds

::Author's Notes::  
  
Feh, this server is acting oddly. It must take a while for it to update something because I replaced Chapter One with an edited version. (It was sorta messed up:}) . . . so, however. I won't hold you; read on:  
  
Oh wait, by the way -- ::cuts and pastes:: -- I don't own Inu-Yasha or any of it's characters, my heroine Rumiko Takahashi has that honor. I am making zero profit from this work other than my own amusement and perhaps the amusement of others. ::Bows:: Just thought I'd get all this legal crap out of my way -- the last thing I need is a lawsuit.  
  
Here we go!  
  
  
  
Fate's Ways  
Chapter Two  
Traditional First Insults and Ego Wounds  
By Jann  
  
  
"This may come as a shocker, Kag, but I don't think this is head trauma," Hojou reflected as Kagome walked in. The police officers were just leaving, having dumped the body, and therefore the paperwork, into the morgue's collective lap. He opened a cabinet and retreived a digital camera with a huge, old fashioned flash-bulb flash attached.  
  
"You know, I don't think it was arrow-trauma either," Kagome said after a moment or two. "Even if these are extremly sharp, the ER should have been able to help him. But he was pronounced on the scene, am I correct?"  
  
"Yep . . . Look at this, Higurashi," Hojou marveled, sidestepping around the table with the suite's camera. "These arrows definatly aren't new. They're not even plastic." He knelt down to get a profile veiw and took a picture, the bright flash illuminating everything.  
  
"Must be hunting arrows," Kagome speculated, pulling a mask over her mouth as she bent in to look.  
  
"People still hunt with arrows?" Hojou asked. He bent down and pulled a stool out from under the stationary table. He stood up on his tip-toes and took what they called a "bird's-eye-veiw" shot.  
  
"Jii-san used to take me bow hunting all the time when I was a teenager," Kagome said. She cocked her head to one side to look down into the wounds.  
  
"Doesn't really sound like there's much sport in that," Hojou said with a shrug. He took a photo from the head end.  
  
"Really now; and what do you consider 'sport'?" Kagome teased.  
  
"Gimme a rifle, a salt lick and a pack of cards and THAT is hunting," Hojou said.  
  
"It's sporty to lure a stupid animal to lick the ground so you can blow it's head off?"  
  
"When you say it, it sounds bad."  
  
"What else am I here for?"  
  
The cordless telephone rang from the scale counter. They like to keep a cordless in the suite so if one of them wasn't doing anything messy, it could still be answered. Where it was, exactly, they were never sure, but they knew it was there and the helpless rings were enough to keep them searching.  
  
"That's what you're here for," Hojou said, as if the ring had come on cue. "You wanna get that? I'm almost done here."  
  
Kagome headed for the scale coutner and lifted a bunch of clean smocks. No go. The phone rang again. She looked behind the jars and the jarring fluids, but she didn't see it and the telelohone continued to cry for her.  
  
"Try the glove cuboard," Hojou suggested.  
  
Kagome opened the cupboard. "Why the blue hell would it be in here?"  
  
There was the phone, a sleek black hunk of plastic, making the most annoying, incessant noises she'd ever heard. "Hojou, you have some weird organizational systems. "Fairveiw Morgue, Homocide Department. This is Dr. Higurashi speaking."  
"You forgot 'Kagome,' " Hojou reminded her in a stage whisper, but Kagome just waved him off.  
  
"Miroku!" a faraway voice chided over a lot of background. "Look, lady. We just want the car that Mr. Myoga called and reserved for us and as much as he begs and pleads, we don't want you, or anyone else, in it."  
  
"He doesn't mean that," came another faint voice.  
  
"Oh yes I do."  
  
"Excuse me sir, I think perhaps you have the wrong number," Kagome began.  
  
"I'm looking for Fairveiw Morgue on Fairveiw Boulevard. I want the suite with Kohaku Zackow's body in it," the first voice ordered.  
  
"One second." Kagome pressed the hold button. "Hey, Hojou; check that toe-tag. What's this kid's name?"  
  
Hojou snapped another quick picture. Then he went to the end of the table and checked the right big toe. "We've got a Kohaku Zackow."  
  
Kagome took her finger off the hold button.  
  
"Thank you. We're all set right? Myoga got the paperwork done over the phone?"  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"Good."  
  
There was the a slam. "Miroku! GET IN HERE! We don't have all day!"  
  
"Sir?" Kagome asked meekly.  
  
"Yeah. You figure it out?" the voice asked.  
  
"You have the correct suite. May I ask why you're calling?" Kagome asked.  
  
"Yeah. Agent Ash and I'll be there a little early. Give us a half an hour," he told her.  
  
"Back up, sir. I can't admit you unless I know who you are. 'Agent,' you said?" Kagome asked, already disgusted. They weren't going to bring the feds in, were they?  
  
"Didn't you get the papers yet? Dr. Higurashi and Dr. Miller. I'm Special Agent Oniiyoukai. Special Agent Ash and I are asigned to this case," he informed her.  
  
"Hojou, did we get any paperwork with this that said the feds were coming in?" Kagome demanded.  
  
"Lemme look . . ." Hojou riffled through a few file folders. "Yeah, we did. Oniiyoukai and Ash, right?"   
"Damnit," Kagome muttered. The feds were even worse than the local police department. At the people from the P.D. knew she and Hojou were competant enough to get their own work done; the people from the bureau marched right in and took over. "You're right, Agent Oniiyoukai. Half an hour, you said?"  
  
"Gee, don't get too excited over it," he mumbled.  
  
"We're about to start the autopsy, Agent Oniiyoukai." That wasn't entirly true; they were just taking photos. Or Hojou was, anyway. But they would have to take the arrows out to do a frontal report, when they were finished with the back.  
  
"Well maybe you should go through your files a little more thouroughly before you do something stupid like that," Inu-Yasha snapped. "We want to be there for the autopsy."  
  
"Then we'll see you in a half an hour, Agent Oniiyoukai," Kagome said. Then she hung up.  
  
"Kag, did you just give the feddies the moral equivilant of the finger?" Hojou demanded, finishing off the role of film.  
  
"Well . . ."  
  
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," he muttered. "So I guess we can't start the y-incision until they get here, right?"  
"Right," Kagome sighed. "Thirty minutes."  
  
"Okay. Help me stick Kohaku here in the fridge until then. We can finished up with Johnny on this other table," he suggested.  
  
The two of them transported Kohaku's body to a rolling table and then to an empty cell in the freezer. "I'll finish cleaning up here if you get the form filled out for Doe."  
  
"You got yourself a deal. Again."  
  
  
+++  
  
  
"The bitch hung up on me!" Inu-Yasha cried increduously.  
  
"You just don't know how to treat a woman," Miroku accused. He had quickly gotten over the desk clerk at the Hertz center. His tall, gangly frame was bent over in his seat, playing "snake" on his cell phone.  
  
"Pfft. Like you do?" Inu-Yasha demanded, turning into the Holiday Inn.  
  
"I have a way," Miroku swaggered  
  
"Yeah, we all see them lining up, Miroku," Inu-Yasha mumbled. He put the vehicle in park and got out, shoving his keys into the pocket of his black slacks. He took the blazer off the back of his seat and put it back on before slamming his door and heading around to the trunk.  
  
"Well, you'd just give me a chance . . ." Miroku began, taking his own suit case out of the back.  
  
"You may never know just how much humilation I've saved you over the years," Inu-Yasha told his partner before closing the trunk as well.  
  
"Yeah, yeah," Miroku mumbled.  
  
They stepped into the lobby of the hotel and stepped in front of the desk. Inu-Yasha sighed inwardly of releif when he saw the clerk was a teenage boy. At least he didn't have to worry about Miroku; for once.  
  
"Welcome to the Holiday Inn. How can I help you?"  
  
"Yeah, we have a couple of rooms reserved by a Mr. Myoga. They should be under 'Oniiyoukai' and 'Ash.' " Inu-Yasha told him.  
  
"Ashleigh!" the clerk called into the back office. "Grab the desk until Tish gets back!"  
  
"Ashleigh?" Miroku asked innocently.  
  
"This way, sir," the boy said. He left the counter and, taking suitcases, head towards the elevator.  
  
"He said this way, Miroku, not towards the new desk-lady," Inu-Yasha growled, grabbing Miroku by the ear and following the teenager into the elevator.  
  
"Owowow!" Miroku hissed feebly.  
  
The elevator took them up three floors. The boy led them past a gameroom and a bar and down another hall before he reached three-twenty-seven and three-twenty-eight. "Here are your rooms, sirs, thank you for choosing Holiday Inn." He set their bags down beside the door. After Inu-Yasha had given him a couple dollars, he left them their keys and went back the way he had come.  
  
The rooms were mirror images of each other. They were large with a full-sized bed each and not much else. Inu-Yasha threw his suitcase down beside the bed and turned to meet a mirror.  
  
For a spilt second, he could have sworn he'd see something other than his reflection. Or a reflection his own, but warped. His long, dark hair was for a split second, silver and it seemed insane, but had those been dog ears on his head?  
  
His shook his head vigorously and straightened his tie. He opened the door to find no less than Miroku flirting with one of the maids, who was giggling and playing with the small ponytail at the nape of his neck.  
  
"Oi! Miroku! Your wife's on the phone!" he called over to them, holding a dead cell phone in his partner's general direction.  
  
Inu-Yasha grinned devilishly when the maid's expression turned sour and she smacked him, grabbed her mop and stalked off. Miroku slumped over and scowled when Inu-Yasha approached him. "Damnit, Miroku, do I need to get you spayed?! Let's go."  
  
  
::Author's Notes::  
  
Well, well, well . . . this will probably get slightly supernatural . . . hence the name "Fate's Ways" . . . cackles . . . R+R is greatly appreciated. 


	3. Not So Plesant Meetings

::Author's Note::  
  
Of course, another disclaimer, the *fine print,* if I might: I don't own Inu-Yasha and unless there's some freak accident in which the world explodes and I'm the last person left on earth, I probably never will. "Inu-Yasha" and all it's characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. ::Bows:: No sue-ie, please.  
  
On a totally unrelated note, I'd like to dedicate this chapter of "Fate's Ways" to the crew of The Columbia, who went down in flames over Texas on Saturday, February 1, 2003.  
  
"When there's nothing left to say, say the obvious; God bless the Columbia."  
-- John Constant  
  
  
  
Fate's Ways  
Chapter Three  
"Not So Pleasant Meetings"  
By Jann  
  
  
"Ahrg!" Kagome called in frustration. "Hojou! Have you seen the John Doe files anywhere? I don't know what number to use!"  
  
"Uhhnn . . ." came Hojou's faint response. "Did you try the refrigerator, under my lunch?"  
  
"Hojou, you are dead meat!" Kagome hollered back, upon finding the exact file she had just spent over fifteen minutes looking for. She had finally given up and finished the rest of the form before restarting her search. After another ten minutes of hunting around on the ground for the missing file, she had finally thought to ask Hojou.  
  
Hojou knew where everything was.  
  
"Sorry?" Hojou yelled back in question.  
  
"Sorry doesn't cut it," Kagome roared. She tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ears and spent the three seconds that it took to look up John Doe's number and quickly typed it in and sent the file to Ms. Yura.  
  
Kagome re-entered the autopsy suite to find that Hojou had finished cleaning. He grinned sheepishly and closed the lid on the laundry bin before pushing it across the suite to the door to the hall. He opened the door and found himself face to face with two men.  
  
"My name is Special Agent Inu-Yasha Oniiyoukai," the one on the left informed him.  
  
"And I'm Special Agent Miroku Ash," his partner added.  
  
"Afternoon, Agents," Hojou said humbly. "If you'll let me pass, I have to take care of this bin. Dr. Higurashi will assist you in any way she can."  
  
Miroku and Inu-Yasha filed into the suite, allowing Hojou to make his way out, Miroku eyeing the bin skeptically. When he looked up again, though, his brows instantly furrowed. He tossed a glance at Inu-Yasha to see that his eyes had widened upon sight of Dr. Higurashi.  
  
"Inu-Yasha," Miroku whispered. "Doesn't she look a little like Kiky --"  
  
"Shut up, Ash."  
  
"Sure, if that's the way you want it," Miroku said with a shrug. "Fair lady," he called across the room, instigating the stride to the other side. At risk of loosing their forensic pathologist to Miroku's insatiable drive to flirt, he followed.  
  
The woman before him looked just like his finance.  
  
Former. Former finance  
  
He shook the thought from his head. It wasn't time think about Kikyou, not now, not yet. It hadn't even been a year since he'd . . . lost . . . her. It wasn't time.  
  
"My name is Dr. Kagome Higurashi," she began. "I understand you're here about the body of the Zackow kid."  
  
"Yeah," Miroku offered. "Kohaku. With the arrows." His face grew dark. "The P.D. didn't touch them, did they?"  
  
Kagome raised an eyebrow. "I've got the homicide unit of the police department pretty well trained around here, Agent Ash. No one touches my bodies but me or Hojou."  
  
"Miroku, Dr. Higurashi," he corrected with a smooth smile. Inu-Yasha overcame the urge to knock him over.  
  
"Sure, okay," Kagome agreed.  
  
"Uh, Kag?" Hojou called from the doorway.  
  
Kagome looked away from the agents to her partner on the other side of the suite. He was pushing a presumably empty bin and glancing off to the left of the frame of the door nervously.  
  
"Kagome, I think we have a . . ."  
  
"You bitch! You're no better than those damned police officers! You and this damned Dr. Miller! I want to see my little brother!" a young woman screeched, stomping across the suite. Hojou followed her apprehensively and caught a tray of tools before it teetered off the side of the table as she stormed past.  
  
". . . a problem," Hojou finished when he reached Kagome. He rolled the bin into the crevice beside the door into the storeroom.  
  
The tall, dark-haired woman pushed through Agents Oniiyoukai and Ash to stand directly in front of Kagome. "I want to see my brother, gad damn you."  
  
"Ma'am . . ." Kagome began softly.  
  
"Don't you 'Ma'am' me!" she screamed, her eyes welling up with tears. "You listen to me! You get my brother out right now!"  
  
"Ms. Zackow, we were about to begin the autopsy and I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave," Kagome explained gently. It wasn't the first family member they'd had and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Some raged, as the Zackow woman was doing, others didn't believe what was happening and some just sobbed onto her or Hojou's shoulder.  
  
Sure enough, Ms. Zackow broke down. "Please, doctor, please listen to me. He's not dead."  
  
'Of course. Of course he's not dead,' Kagome thought to herself. 'Him and just about everyone else who's come through here.' "Please, Ma'am . . ."  
  
"It's Sango, just Sango," she murmured, tears streaming down her face. "Don't call me that, it's not . . . don't . . ."  
  
As if on cue, Hojou handed Kagome a tissue, which Kagome relayed to Sango. "Please, Sango, come with me into my office, all right? We'll talk about it there."  
  
Sango merely leaned on Kagome's shoulder. Kagome mouthed over Sango's head 'brief 'em, Hojou, okay?' It was answered with a wink and a thumbs up from her partner. "Okay, boys, who wants a tour?"  
  
Kagome led Sango through the storeroom and sat her down in a chair in front of her desk. She offered her a box of tissues and nudged a garbage can her way with her dirty tennis shoe. "I'm very sorry, Ms. Za-- Sango." Kagome paused. "I know it must be difficult to have someone close to you murdered --"  
  
"He's not dead!" Sango lashed out suddenly, slamming her fist on the desk. "You don't understand!"  
  
"I do understand, Sango," Kagome began. "You're going through --"  
  
"Dr. Higurashi, I was there, okay? I rode in the ambulance with him, I held his hand. This isn't right, hear me? This is Naraku's doing," she explained, her tears drying. "It was Naraku and that Shikon shit."  
  
"Naraku?" Kagome asked. "Shikon?" What did those names have to do with anything?  
  
"You've never heard of it?" Sango demanded. "I thought everyone had. And you being a doctor and all . . ."  
  
"I have heard the name, of course," Kagome said. "But isn't it a wonder-drug or something? They were calling it 'the next Penicillin' on 'The Today Show' a while back, when they first started testing it. Created by a scientist somewhere in D.C."  
  
"That's it," Sango said with a nod and a sniff. She blew her nose one last time. "Did you hear that it's gotten onto the streets? There was a huge controversy. Evidently -- the studies weren't complete -- they figured out . . ." Sango's eyes filled again, but she didn't reach for the tissues. "It's a puppet drug. Or it can be used as one. This dealer, Naraku -- he got his hands on the stuff and he's been using it . . . The guy's as slippery as Bin Ladin, Dr. Higurashi. It's been all over the news."  
  
"I've seen Naraku's name in the headlines and I know what everyone knows about Shikon. What's that have to do with your little brother?"  
  
"Kohaku . . ." Sango looked on the verge of another break down, for a second. "He left right after he got home from school the other day. Left a suicide note for our dad to find. I went looking for him at the arcade and challenged him to a game of Feudal Warfare. He told me that he had said done some things that he probably shouldn't have and that he was 'leaving.' I know he was involved with Shikon dealers, you'd know too, if you'd seen him."  
  
Kagome fought to stop a rising eyebrow. It wasn't uncommon for people to make up strange excuses like the ones Sango had, but most of them were more plausible. The physiological aspect had something to do with redeeming the person in one's mind. Connecting her brother's death with something so far-fetched as Shikon seemed like it would defeat the purpose, though.  
  
"So you see, he's not dead," Sango finished.  
  
"Sango, I looked at the body myself. Your brother is quite dead," Kagome explained as pacifically as she could.  
  
"Dr. Higurashi, when someone's system is as full of Shikon as Kohaku's must have been, death is near impossible! Shikon will sustain life as long as it's needed!" Sango insisted. "If Naraku was controlling him, then he --"  
  
"Kagome!" Hojou called, interrupting Sango. "Kag, we've got a 'napping," Hojou explained breathlessly.  
  
"Shit!" Kagome screeched, jumping up. "How the hell did this happen, Miller?"  
  
"I don't know, Kag, we were in the suite the whole time, remember? One of us was always in the suite, since we put him away. I mean, obviously there's the window, but you couldn't drag a body out that window without leaving tracks, I mean, come on," Hojou rambled, snatching up the phone. "If we call this in quick, maybe they can catch it before they put the organs on the market."  
  
"He wasn't taken," Sango said darkly. "He's gotten up and gone by himself. Listen to me, Kagome Higurashi. He'll go after our dad and after that, he'll come after me."  
  
"Why would your brother kill you?" Kagome asked in exasperation. She didn't realize until after she'd said it the ridiculousness of what she'd said.  
  
Body-napping wasn't all that uncommon in the large morgues of Olympia, Washington; in fact, it was easy to slip in, grab a specimen and fool one's way out of the morgue. The thing was, Fairveiw, though prestigious, wasn't a large morgue. Each pair of doctors had a suite with it's own cooler. Hojou and Kagome had suffered only one previous stolen body and it had been by an intern. The predicament had been nerve-racking, though not very surprising.  
  
Kagome had always thought that kid was a little off anyway.  
  
"Hojou, have you gotten through yet?" she asked, grabbing her coat and flinging it over her shoulders.  
  
"Damn operators," Hojou grumbled. "I'll keep trying."  
  
"So how're we gonna find this body?" Inu-Yasha demanded from the doorway. He was leaning against the frame with his arms crossed, looking Kagome right in the eye. For the first time, Kagome really looked at him. He was tall, with a good build and compelling azure eyes. His long black hair fell lazily past his shoulders and the expression on his face seemed to dare her, or anyone else for that matter, to contradict him. In her chest, something danced a bit, but she quickly slapped it down. Now was no time to develop a crush; especially not on a feddie.  
  
"We?" Kagome demanded. "I," she said purposefully, "am going to the station. If they pick anything up, I want it before they mutilate it."  
  
"Stupid," Inu-Yasha said flatly. "You say it had to go out the window? That's where you start. That's a basic. Are all doctors this dumb?" God, she looked so much like Kikyou.  
  
"I said he couldn't go out the window," Kagome said darkly. "I said there's no possible way he could have gotten out that window without making a mess." 'Or the perp wrapped the body in a sheet, breaking half of the bones, of course, on his way and managed to haul it out,' a voice in the back of her mind suggested.  
  
"I didn't say there wasn't a mess," Hojou called over the mouthpiece of the phone. He had settled down in front of his computer and was typing furiously. "Damn P.D.! What's the access code to the critical info?"  
  
"2000785," Kagome answered. "There was a mess?" she asked suddenly.  
  
"Helluva mess, Kag; but wasn't a drag mess. More like someone had gone wading in a puddle of blood and started dancing," Hojou explained. He slammed the phone down, picked it up once again and hit re-dial.  
  
"Is this an unusual occurrence?" Miroku asked. "I've heard of lots of body-snatchings."  
  
"Not here you haven't," Kagome said grimly, grabbing her few worldly possessions -- a cell phone and a wallet shoved into her pocket. "Stuff like this can mean big trouble. Didn't you hear about the Paton Case?"  
  
"No," Miroku said simply.  
  
"It was bad," was all Kagome offered.  
  
"You also said you or Hojou here was in the suite the entire time," Inu-Yasha said suddenly. "Which leaves no possible escape route but a window. Unless you're so inattentive that a body-napper could tip-toe, tip-toe past you."  
  
"I'm checking out the cooler, Agent Onii . . . Onii . . . sama, chan, whatever the hell it was," Kagome said crossly.  
  
"Inu-Yasha," he grumbled.  
  
"Whatever. They couldn't have taken him out that window. It's not that big and it's at least four feet off the ground. When a body is in a rigormortis state, it don't maneuver so goodly. He didn't just get up and walk away!"  
  
"I told you," Sango growled. "He's not dead."  
  
"To the fridge it is, then," Miroku offered.  
  
"I guess we'll find out soon enough, won't we," Kagome muttered, following close behind Inu-Yasha, Miroku and Sango.  
  
This was breaking up the routine.  
  
  
:: Author's Note ::  
  
Obviously, we're going a *bit* out of order here. It's okay though, we'll move on. R+R is greatly appreciated. I'd like to know if anyone's reading this so I know whether to bother uploading this stuff or not ^_^;; (my pc's soooo slow . . .)  
  
Anyways, I hope we're enjoying ourselves. More later! :} 


	4. Dreams

::Author's Note::  
  
I lack ownage of "Inu-Yasha" or any related characters. I am merely using their identities to create a story. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi, of whom I am extremely jealous.  
  
Because it bugs me to not be able to intensify anything, from here on out, let  
  
*text*  
  
represent emphasis.  
  
With nothing more to say, let's move on:  
  
Enjoy.  
  
  
  
Fate's Ways  
Chapter Four  
"Dreams"  
By Jann  
  
  
"This place is a dump," Miroku observed upon entry to the cooler. He reached into the pocket of his blazer and took out a small digital camera. Despite his determination to bed just about every woman he laid eyes on, he was quick-minded and efficient when it came to his cases. It was how he managed to remind Inu-Yasha why he tolerated such a lecher.  
  
Miroku began to step around the room as carefully as possible, snapping pictures all the way. "What did it look like in here before the joint was trashed?"  
  
Because he was right -- it really looked horrible. But Kagome could see that whoever had gone through hadn't destruction on his or her mind. There *was* blood everywhere and the door to Kohaku's cell had come clean off. But the cupboards of sheets was unscathed, the unlocked filing cabinet wasn't touched and the Zackow kid's drawer was the only one open. It was obvious that the intruder had one thing and one thing alone on his mind.  
  
Kohaku.  
  
"These aren't ordinary nappers," Hojou said, reading her mind.  
  
"Why?" Inu-Yasha demanded. He too had begun to pick his way around the room cautiously.  
  
"Well, Agent, look at it this way. Say you were looking to steal . . . oh, an exotic bird to sell on the black market. You could only carry one. Which bird would you take?" Hojou asked.  
  
Inu-Yasha shot Hojou a half-skeptical, half-accusatory look before answering. "I guess . . . the biggest, healthiest, best bird they had. The one that would get me the best price."  
  
"Exactly," Hojou responded with a nod. He stepped to the wall to the left, opposite from the window, perpendicular to Kohaku's and therefore cleanest. He opened a cell and eased our the drawer to reveal a body. He pulled the sheet down the midsection. "Mark Kanno. Same age as Kohaku, same ethnicity, hell, these two even had the same blood type. How we got a pair so similar is beyond me. This boy died of accidental strangulation. Long story," he added after the perplexed glances reached him. "His organs are almost all in tact. His death was very clean and very recent. This body is easily worth far more than Kohaku's on any market. Why did the culprit take Kohaku over Mark?"  
  
"That's sick," Sango spat.  
  
Hojou merely nodded gravely.  
  
"Feh. If the guy wanted to get in and out, he probably picked the first random door," Inu-Yasha said loftily.  
  
"Look, -- er -- Inu-Yasha," Kagome began, "even an amateur knows if the first body's messy, you pick door number two."  
  
"Maybe the guy needed a kid and he didn't know about that Kanno boy," Miroku suggested, returning the camera to his pocket.  
  
"Possible, I suppose," Hojou agreed reluctantly.  
  
"Is that a security camera?" Miroku asked, changing the subject. He pointed above Kagome's head to the small, black sphere.  
  
"Yeah," Kagome said. "But it doesn't record. Obviously if whoever is monitoring saw it, they were busy with something else."  
  
"Still . . . we should talk to him anyway," Miroku said thoughtfully.  
  
"And we better call in the police department," Inu-Yasha sneered. "Hey, Miroku, you sure you got all the pictures we'll need?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Come on, Higurashi. You have to show us how to get to this security office," Inu-Yasha commanded.  
  
"I'm going with you," Sango interjected.  
  
"I don't think I can allow that, Miss Zackow," Inu-Yasha informed her.  
  
"It's my brother, Agent, and I'll follow you wherever I think I need," Sango growled menacingly.  
  
"Um . . . perhaps we'll make an exception," an obviously frightened Miroku said, tapping Inu-Yasha's shoulder.  
  
"Useless," he mumbled in Miroku's general direction. "What?!" he demanded of Kagome's glare.  
  
"I'd just like to remind you that this is as much *my* case as it is yours and it'll be a cold day in hell before I take orders from the likes of *you,*" Kagome spat.  
  
"Who's the agent here, woman, me or you?" Inu-Yasha asked, taking a step closer to magnify the foot or so he had over the forensic pathologist.  
  
"Who needs cooperation more, me or you?" Kagome responded coldly. "Judging from your attitude, I figure you'd been reported a time or two. If I refuse to work with you, who'll be replaced, me or you?"  
  
Kagome smirked inwardly when Inu-Yasha shifted nervously in his shoes.  
  
"Fine, let's just go," he finally grumbled.  
  
"*Thank* you," Kagome replied, returning to the suite. "We're going upstairs, then."  
  
"Ooh, Kag, I forgot to tell you --"  
  
And then she was unconscious.  
  
  
+++  
  
  
"Kagome, are you okay?"  
  
"Lady Kagome! You didn't hit your head, did you?"  
  
"She'll be fine."  
  
'Did Agent Ash just use the term "lady?" ' Kagome wondered within the depths of her mind. She was beginning to feel that it was the least of her worries, though. Something wasn't right. The floor wasn't the smooth, *wet* tile of the autopsy suite. The smell of fermeldahide was conspicuously absent. It was replaced with . . . a scent she hadn't detected in a long time. It smelled like the forest outside the shrine she had grown up in.  
  
Kagome forced her eyes open and propped herself up on one elbow. The effort was useless though, because when she gasped, the elbow faltered beneath her.  
  
"Where the hell am I?!" she screamed, leaping to her feet from the grassy ground. She looked around. Trees. *Everywhere.* And her companions; their faces hadn't *much* changed, but their clothing had. Miroku in deep blue and purple robes instead of a suit and tie? A golden staff at his side in place of a gun? Sango, too; dressed in the garb of some kind of warrior. She carried a *huge* boomerang upon her back. But they were so much younger -- they looked like teenagers.  
  
But when Kagome looked down, she realized they were not out of place. She was dressed in the uniform she remembered so well from middle school. She couldn't be fifteen again though . . . could she?  
  
"They're coming closer."  
  
Kagome turned to Agent Oniiyoukai's voice, expecting dress similar to Miroku's. What met her eyes made her eyes widen and her jaw drop.  
  
Clad in a red kimono, Inu-Yasha's long dark hair had turned completely silver and a set of dog-like ears make home at the top of his head. Fingernails like claws made even his hands fearsome and his once azure eyes were *gold.*  
  
"What is it, Kagome?" Inu-Yasha asked, taking a step closer.  
  
Kagome took two steps back.  
  
No, there couldn't have been an underlying note of fear in his voice. That alert glare hadn't faltered in the least.  
  
"Agent Onii . . . Onii . . . Inu . . . Yasha?" Kagome asked, unable to believe what she was seeing. "What *are* you?" she whispered. "What kind of genetic defect *is* this?"  
  
"It seems she's lost her mind," Sango replied in bewilderment.  
  
"No, no, no. I'm at Fairveiw Morgue," she said aloud, squeezing her eyes shut. "I'm at Fairveiw Morgue in Olympia, Washington on Fairveiw Boulevard and when I open my eyes, we'll all be back the way we're supposed to be." Kagome slowly opened one eye and then the other. She scanned the group once again, her gaze lingering on the FBI agent's new attributes for only a second. "Damnit."  
  
"Feh. Funny, what happens when you hit your head hard enough. 'What am I,' " he sneered. "Never though I'd hear that from you." He turned away from her to scan the forest.  
  
Kagome assured herself she had not detected even a trace of hurt in his voice. "Do you have a problem, Agent?" she demanded.  
  
He flinched. "Stupid wench. You're not worth the time," Inu-Yasha spat. There *was* a hint of pain in that cold voice. After hearing the moral equivalent of the same words not five minutes before, Kagome couldn't deny it. The question was *why?*  
  
"Stupid fed," Kagome replied, not really considering the fact that whatever was going on, he couldn't be a fed anymore. "Stupid, arrogant feddie! *You* move on *my* turf and expect to just take over --"  
  
Inu-Yasha whirled around. "*YOUR TURF?!*"  
  
"What?!" Kagome demanded, seeing the looks on Miroku and Sango's faces. They looked like they had just watched the gate to the impossible erupt in flames and burn to the ground.  
  
"A-are you sure you're all right, Lady Kagome?" Miroku asked carefully.  
  
"No!" Kagome cried.  
  
"We'll worry about it later," Inu-Yasha snapped, pulling a rusty katana from the sheath at his side. He swung it once and it transformed into a huge sword. It almost resembled a fang, Kagome notice, but she didn't really think her opinion would be valued right then. "Stupid, take Shippo and run," he sighed angrily.  
  
"Uh . . . Inu-Yasha? I think she's out again."  
  
  
+++  
  
  
"-- That I sprayed down the floor. Sorry."  
  
"Is she okay?"  
  
"Did she hit her head?"  
  
"Feh. She'll live."  
  
"I at Fairveiw Morgue," Kagome whispered before opening her eyes to see Inu-Yasha looking down on her. His hair was black once more and his eyes the icy sapphire they had been when she met him.  
  
It was a dream.  
  
Duh. Of course it was a dream.  
  
She sat up slowly and rubbed the back of her head where she had smacked it on the floor. There would be a goose-egg like nobody's business, but Inu-Yasha had been right -- she would live.  
  
"I-I . . . I'm fine," she said, grasping for balance unwisely on the rolling table beside her. It slipped and she almost fell again, but a hand roughly caught her arm and helped her up.  
  
"Come on," the owner grumbled, returned the appendage to his coat pocket. "We don't have all day." 


	5. Getting Nowhere

::Author's Note::  
  
Ah, here's a good question -- is the a/u fic related to the regular story-line -- sorta. I think you'll find that I like to play with fate and destiny and all that fun stuff. The musings about her dreams ... well, I'll tell you one thing, one of your guesses is almost dead on ^_^;;. The truth behind Kagome's "dreams" (plural, for that was not the last) will be revealed a bit later though. ::cackle, cackle::  
  
Thank ye all for the reviews! I hope you keep reading!  
  
Rumiko Takahashi (and not I) still owns "Inu-Yasha" or any of the related characters. I don't foresee any change in that at this present time.  
  
  
  
Fate's Ways  
Chapter Five  
"Getting Nowhere"  
By Jann  
  
  
"Look, Inu-Yasha, I don't think it's wise for neither of us to be present when the police arrive. I'm going to stay down here and see what they have to say about the . . . er . . . body-napping and if they've heard anything. I will also inform Director Myoga, or rather his secretary, he's probably still at *lunch,* of this," Miroku suggested.  
  
"I'll stay as well then," Sango said. "I need to know where my brother went."  
  
Kagome refrained from reminding Sango that her brother was incapable of "going" anywhere and that "taken" was probably the proper term. Evidently Sango Zackow was a few bricks short of a full load and it would do no good to correct her anymore.  
  
Inu-Yasha eyed Miroku skeptically and tapped him slightly on the head before whispering, "If you touch her, Ash, you will die at my hand. She's our only witness."  
  
"Yes, sir!" Miroku replied cheerfully with a salute and an obvious intent to do no such thing as obey his partner.  
  
Evidently, Inu-Yasha saw that. "Miss Zackow, I'd like to inform you of Miroku's, ah, itinerant hands. That's your only warning."  
  
Sango merely scowled at Inu-Yasha.  
  
"Suit yourself," Inu-Yasha muttered. "Coming?" he asked.  
  
Kagome jerked herself out of fairy-land. "Yes. This way," Kagome said, opening the heavy door to the suite. She led Inu-Yasha out of the autopsy suite and down the hall.   
  
Hojou's previous call to the police would be answered shortly. Kagome only hoped whatever incompetents were sent after the body wouldn't get into her and the Agent's way. Police with warrants could be tricky like that with their "now duncha dare let no one in thar room but me"'s and "well, I didn't know the FBI was assigned to this case! I'ma hafta talk to my superiors"'s. The hatred between the morgue and the department was at least understood; the forensic pathologists were there to help. The war between them and the FBI was quite different. The two were known to hoard information from each other like ten-year-olds with candy.  
  
It didn't help Kagome much, to say the least.  
  
They entered the elevator at the end of the hall and once they were both inside, Kagome pressed the button for the top floor, which happened to the be the second. The autopsy suites were all in the basement, filework on the first floor, officials and security on the top. There were cameras in every room in the basement and in most rooms on the first and second floors. The network was big and if something like a napping had been missed, either someone wasn't doing his job or they lacked a large enough force.  
  
Kagome opted for a little of both. The elevator stopped soon after departure. Evidently, when the plans had been made for the building, it was meant to be a much bigger morgue and therefore much taller, but things hadn't worked out with the owner and it had passed hands a few times before becoming Fairview. That was long before Kagome's time, though. So she used the elevator and didn't ask questions.  
  
With Inu-Yasha walking directly beside her, no doubt in some passive-aggressive attempt to prove her his equal, at the very least, Kagome trepsed another hallway and cut right the first intersection. At the first door on the left, she knocked firmly and stepped back.  
  
The door opened and a man in his late fifties greeted them in black slacks and a gray polo with a patch that read "Fairview Security."  
  
"Afternoon. My name is Matt Ripely. How can I help you?" he asked, stepping aside to let them into the dimly lit room. It was quite small, containing a single desk, a few overflowing file cabinets and three chairs, the more worn of which was behind the cluttered desk.  
  
"I'm Dr. Higurashi from Suite Four," Kagome said, producing the identification tag on her lapel. "We're looking for the room with the monitor for the camera to my cooler."  
  
"Ah, Suite Four, you say?" Ripley asked, picking his way through the mess on the desk. "Suite Two, I see, five," he mumbled. After a moment or two, he came upon a thick file folder with a four on it. "Ah. Let me see. All of Suite Four's cameras are in room 213."  
  
"Thank you for your help, Mr. Ripley," Kagome said, turning again and opening the door.  
  
"Shouldn't you know where your cameras are already?" Inu-Yasha asked as they resumed their journey down yet another hall. "You'd think someone would know where their own security cameras lead."  
  
"This doesn't happen very often," Kagome responded, stopping front of another door at the end of the hall. "Only once before. And we didn't need the cameras then." She knocked on 213.  
  
This time, response came with a bit more delay. Kagome had to knock twice more before the door was opened to reveal the inside, lit in errie colors from the t.v.s covering the south wall.  
  
"Bernie Lautner," the man greeted them. He didn't look a day over thirty, nor pleased at the interruption. "Come on, move it long, I have a job to do."  
  
"Dr. Higurashi," Kagome said with a raised eyebrow, showing her lapel. This coming from the man that must have missed a break-in?  
  
"An' you?"  
  
"Special Agent Inu-Yasha Oniiyoukai," Inu-Yasha said, flashing his badge and looking slightly surprised that he cared.  
  
"Come on in," he said, stepping aside and closing the door behind them.  
  
  
+++  
  
  
"I don't believe we've had chance to properly introduce ourselves," Miroku said. "My name is Miroku Ash and I would be very honored if you would do me the honor of bearing me a son."  
  
Miroku was met with hard smack to the same cheek that had suffered the blow from the maid, but he didn't even flinch. "Well. I don't suppose you'll at least tell me your name?"  
  
"Sango Zackow," she snapped. "Though I don't think you deserve the knowledge."  
  
Before Miroku could attempt to smooth things over with his latest challenge, the door opened and two policemen stepped in, uninvited. Miroku turned from Sango to greet the intruders for Hojou, who was in the office still trying to track down Kohaku.  
  
"Hello, boys," Miroku said, offering his hand. "Special Agent Miroku Ash," he added, producing his badge in his left hand. "Dr. Miller will be out soon. He's busy right now."  
  
The younger one, gangly and no doubt just over twenty-five, shook Miroku's hand with a grin. "Officer Douglas Shelton."  
  
His partner, however, was obviously more experienced, given his more pronounced build and reluctance to look Miroku in the eyes without a measure of suspicion. "Officer Krit. We're here about the body-napping."  
  
"Of course, Officers, I live to serve," Miroku said, turning and leading them to the cooler. He winked at Sango on the way and shook his head slightly as they passed. "You'll find the crime scene untouched. After you take your pictures, I'll be happy to take my blood samples and be on my way."  
  
"Now just a minute," Krit said. "I'll have to clear it with my super before you touch anything."  
  
"Very sorry, Officer, but I already have total amnesty in anything pertaining to this case. I was assigned to the death of Kohaku Zackow before his body was taken and I'm afraid I'll be following him until he's found. I have work to do, so if you'll try and get your job done, I'll be able to complete mine," Miroku informed him.  
  
"Now wait just one --" Krit began, but his partner was already snapping photos. Krit sighed and began to survey the scene as Inu-Yasha and Miroku had already done.  
  
"Oh, and I'll be taking the door to the cell as well," Miroku told Krit. "Hey, Dr. Miller!" he called.  
  
"Yeah?" Hojou asked, returning to the cooler.  
  
"Do you have any boots, shoe-coverings or something to the like so I can get the cell door?" Miroku asked.  
  
"Agent, you hang on, I know I wanna talk to my super --" Krit began again, his face beginning to redden.  
  
"Officer, I already told you. The FBI has priority on this case. The only reason we had to call you was so you could make a report," Miroku told him. "Please refrain from making this difficult."  
  
"I have my pictures, Krit," Shelton said, returning to his partner's side.  
  
"So the scene is clear for inspection?" Hojou asked.  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Well, wait!"  
  
"Okay." Hojou put on a pair of gloves and walked to the middle of the room where the cell door lay. He picked it up carefully, touching only the edges and as sparsely as possible at that. "I don't know what kind of evidence bag you plan on using for this, Agent Ash, but you better get it soon."  
  
"I'll get right on that Dr. Miller. Uh, you don't happen to have anything just lying around, do you?"  
  
  
+++  
  
  
"You're *kidding* me," Lautner said, his eyes not faltering from the televisions in front of him.  
  
"No. The napping was only a half an hour to forty-five minutes ago. What were you doing at the time?" Inu-Yasha asked. His pencil and pad was already out and he was taking notes.   
  
Lautner smacked his forehead. "That's just perfect. There was an problem in Suite Three, Agent."  
  
"What kind of problem?" Kagome asked. She knew Gina Perry and Sheila Achter quite well.  
  
"It was a spill. They were in the middle of an autopsy at the time, so I had to look up one of their pagers. Didn't know what it was or if it was dangerous," Lautner explained. "It's procedure."  
  
"I see," Inu-Yasha said, scribbling something in his notebook before closing it. "You didn't see *anything?*"  
  
"Sorry, you two," Lautner said.  
  
"There's no alarm when the window is broken?" Inu-Yasha asked.  
  
"Nope. Not a very big window. The building's built into a hill, if you didn't notice, and the autopsy suites are all in the basement. In that part of the floor, the window's at least four feet from the floor and not all that big. Someone getting in would have a pretty bad lacerations, after busting through the glass, going through the moral equivalent of a meat grinder and landing in a pile of shards," Lautner pointed out.  
  
"But it's possible," Inu-Yasha said, putting the little notebook back into his coat pocket. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Lautner. The FBI will be in touch."  
  
"Sure," was his offered farewell.  
  
"I can't believe you don't have an alarm on those windows," Inu-Yasha grumbled once they had left room 213. "How irresponsible is that."  
  
"Well don't look at *me,* *I* don't make the security system. Anyway, Mr. Lautner's right. They couldn't have gotten in through the window," Kagome said, putting her hands in her pockets.   
  
"Why?" Inu-Yasha asked. "How can you prove it?"  
  
"Remember the cooler? Listen; no one thought to look at it because we were all so caught up in the napping. I didn't even think of it until a few minutes ago. But there was no glass on the floor under the window. Sure as gravy, the window was broken [::A/N:: did I forget to mention that? A million apologies], but there wasn't any glass on the floor. That means no one broke in, they broke *out,*" Kagome said smugly.  
  
Inu-Yasha thought about it a moment. When he had obviously finished going over it in his mind, he granted her a simple, "Feh."  
  
"The question is," Kagome began as they started down the hall, "how the hell did the bugger get in, then?"  
  
"So basically, we've gotten no where."  
  
"Basically."  
  
"That's fabulous."  
  
"You didn't expect immediate information, did you Inu-Yasha?" Kagome asked incredulously.  
  
"No, but I expected more competance in the morgue officials," he mumbled.  
  
"Ugh. Forget you."  
  
  
  
::Author's Note::  
  
I noticed an error in a former chapter -- the window was broken. ::Bows::  
  
  
Beyond that, I began another fanfic called "The Hanyou Project." So of course I'll have to insert here a little teaser:  
  
The most eyecatching things by far were the freezing compartments. There were dozens of them, each giving off an eerie, soft white glow, the inhabitants hanging almost peacefully in their suspended animation. The most abundant were rats of course, each mutated in some grotesque way, but the further back Nyoko went, the more pronounced their features became and the bigger the animals got, the cycle starting all over again from distorted figures to smooth ones. The deformations seemed so . . . almost *alien* in nature that Nyoko couldn't quite place what the scientist was trying to prove.  
  
"Uh, I don't think you want to do that," the colonel began, but he didn't stop her as she unstacked the freezing stations until she finally came to a huge one, taller than she was, and she gasped when she saw it's occupant. "Dr. Higurashi, those experiments are not . . . Dr. Higurashi!"  
  
"What the hell did that woman create in here?" Nyoko murmured. "And what hell will be wrought from it?"  
  
"Dr. Higurashi, I don't know what project you've been assigned to, but --" the colonel sputtered.  
  
"I think I do, Colonel. The Hanyou Project -- this is it, isn't it? Who could have predicated such a series of experiments . . . It seems so unethical that I didn't even completly believe the abstract when I read it." Nyoko looked the colonel in the eye. "This was Kikyou's lab, Colonel. And this half-alien soldier was her flower of life."  
  
  
  
If you read, *puh-leeze* tell me whatcha think! 


End file.
